Last night when I turned in to my bed, the events of the night 03/04 of Sep 2016 came back with a distinct clarity. I was with Amma for the night and had helped her twice, to go to the rest room - the first was around 0120 hrs and the second was around 0315 hrs. She needed assistance and while going through the exercise, she said that she felt bad that my sleep was getting interrupted and I had assured her that it shouldn't worry her at all.
She was weak and I was wondering as to what I needed to do next to get her up and going. Jimmy, the physician and my friend, had come home and checked her up after I'd given him the gist of her difficulties during the previous evening. He told mom that he was going to Kumarakom, with his family, for the weekend and would tweak her medicines on the afternoon of the following Monday.
She slept till 7 - which was unusual - and had a hot water bath with the help of Preetha, the maid. After sprucing up herself, she had a cup of tea and two glucose biscuits. She was sweating profusely and it was then that I decided to take her to the Rajah Hospital, nearby. Accordingly, I'd called up the late Mr Abdul Rahim Rajah, the proprietor of the hospital and our neighbour and told him about Amma's condition. Being a Sunday, things could be in a relaxed state and therefore, his crisp directions brought the Medical Specialist and the cardiologist to stand by at the hospital while the ambulance came charging home by a half past 8.
We reached the Casualty and Amma was put on an intravenous drip. I was sitting beside her bed, telling her that we'd be returning home after an hour or so, once the medicine got into her system. I sincerely believed that to happen. But seeing the variations in her ECG, the doctors told me that she was being shifted into the ICU, for further management. Around 12, I saw to my utter horror, through a break in the curtain, the doctors and their immediate attendants, around Amma, trying to resuscitate her.
She'd always expressed her desire to be cremated beside dad and therefore, she'd to get back to Raj Nivas. It was again, Mr Rajah, who'd arranged for the ambulance and he did two more things on the quiet viz. (a) Directed the hospital staff not to offer a bill for Amma and (b) Sent his wife, daughter and sister to the hospital to pay their last respects to Amma.
My sister, Rema and I accompanied Amma in the ambulance while Lekha and the others followed us, with Achu chauffeuring them. Two things happened during the course of the journey viz. (a) Mohsin, the driver had halted the ambulance suddenly at Kaakkaazham, at the foot of the ROB short of Ambalappuzha. He returned a while later sheepishly, saying that he'd gone to ease himself. But Kaakkaazham had a significance in Amma's life. She'd done her primary schooling at the school smack opposite where we'd stopped. Was her soul having one last survey of her familiar childhood surroundings?
(b) The journey was uneventful till Adoor where my little Maman and his wife had boarded the ambulance. Thereafter, however much I and Mohsin had tried, we missed the turn towards Kottarakkara and found us headed for Raj Nivas, through Pathanapuram via Padmakumar's house. This was the route Amma used to always prefer whenever we were home bound and I think she insisted on going by that route, that evening!
We reached Raj Nivas by a half past 7, where many of our relatives and a lot of people from the neighbourhood were waiting to have a last glimpse of Amma. By about 8, Amma was lying in state in the familiar sitting room of her house. Around midnight, I had got a call from my sister, Mini and her family, saying that they were on the way from Bangalore and would be reaching by around 2.
The funeral arrangements for the morning were reviewed and I'd gone through, mentally, regarding the things to be done tomorrow as we maintained vigil around Amma, for the night.
Tailpiece.
Got up at 6, the chores and was ready by a half past 9. Thoughts of Amma crowded my mind for the entire day. It has been 4 years since she'd passed into the mist of time, by the English calendar.
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